While
having solar panels on rooftops is becoming less strange every passing year,
some folks are keen to have solar panels cover other parts of their
building as well, so these additional panels could generate additional power.

So,
is it a good idea to have solar panels on places such as the sides and the
front walls of a building?

Well,
no one is really stopping you from having solar panels in any place you want on
your building, like the building owners have done in the image above.

A
better question you may want to ask would be: Is it economically a good idea to have solar
panels on the sides and along the walls of a building?

The
answer is: No. At least not with the current stage of solar photovoltaic
technology.

Except
in very select cases, solar panels generate reasonable power only if
they are oriented in a direction that faces the sun – ideally,
the solar panels should be in a direction perpendicular to the sunlight.

By
having solar panels along your walls and in other odd orientations, one is not
orienting the solar panels optimally. Hence, these could generate half or even much
lower amounts of electricity compared to output from solar panels that are
optimally oriented.

Interestingly,
this is one of the aspects on which few authentic estimates are available. So,
a couple of years back, I took time off to do some calculations of how
much electricity solar panels placed on a north facing roof could generate in
regions where the ideal orientation would be south facing (the case for most
regions located north of equator). After using multiple data sets from
reasonably good sources, my
estimates suggested that the solar panels on the north facing roof in these
regions could end up generating only about 40% of electricity that the
panels on the south facing roof generate.

Now,
imagine yourself pasting solar panels on walls that are facing away from the
sun. You could end up with far less than 40% of output generated by
ideally-oriented solar panels.

Put
another way, you could be
generating less than 40 units of electricity with this sub-optimal orientation,
while your neighbour could be generating 100 units by having it on his rooftop.

It
is unlikely you will be considered the smartest guy in your neighbourhood